8A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, February 22, 1999 H 0 tinilis hip-hop crowd By Monica L. Beckham For the Daily An old Cadillac and truck set the stage for Outkast to enter the Fox Theatre on February 18th. With the R&B group 112 in the audience, Outkast began with their anthem, "Hootie Hoo." Big Boi was dressed in fatigues and an Outkast red, and Andre was dressed in a green sweats and a gray and white fur Mexican sweater and matching sombrero. After a few selections from its three albums, the group engaged the audi- ence in a call and response segment entitled "Bounce Session." The hyped crowd was then led into a mediocre remix of, "Players Ball." Museum exhibits Jacobson MARGARET MYERS/Daily Lauryn Hill is supersexy fine. By Jenny Curren Daily Arts Writer Walking into the new Bill Jacobson exhibit is quite a disconcerting experience. While there is nothing overt- ly disturbing about the collection of hazy, yet intimate, photographs, the images impose a quiet unease upon the viewer. The earliest of Jacobson's three series, "Interim Portraits," deals most directly with the loss and memo- ry invoked by the AIDS generation, a theme he never abandons in later work, even if treated more subtly. Utilizing a solely pristine white background, Jacobson's portraits never fully focus on their subjects, conjuring an unfinished and fading sensation. Though barely visible facial expressions sometimes reflect hap- piness, the overriding emotion is one of premature loss. "Interim Portrait # 373," a close range head shot, por- trays a man with his mouth half open, as if cut off in the middle of an idea he desperately needs to relay. The portraits continuously convey a sense of fading memo- ry and increasing distance. Portraits "# 613" and "# 616," with sprawling uncom- fortable angles, simultaneously suggest the stillness of death and the painful motion of falling. The white backgrounds, while conveying the sterility of sickness and death, also function to remove the sub- jects from a realistic backdrop of pain to a more spiri- tual realm. Both techniques compliment each other to convey the idea that lives were snatched before they were complet- ed. The artist's second series, "The Prtraits of Bil, Songs of Sentient Beings" departs Tho JhtsofBll further from reality; black back- Museum of Art grounds illuminate incandescent figures that lack even the soft- March 2r1oug focused reality present in "Interim Portraits." The figures lack external bodily characteristics, as they are reduced to the very essence of the human form. Interestingly, "Sentient Beings" relays a more uplifting sentiment than do the "Interim Portraits." The increased animation of the figures' movements convey a renewed sense of weightlessness. But Jacobson does not completely abandon the connection to mortality. With "# 1092," a moaning face reminds the viewer that death and pain are ever-present. If "Songs of Sentient Beings" is a departure from reality, Jacobson makes an attempt to return to it with "Thought Series." Adopting an even- more intimate per- Ending with "Rosa Lauryn Hill Fox Theater Feb. 18, 1999 / Parks," the first release off of its latest album "Aquemini," the crowd was defi- nitely satisfied with the final song. As the lights dimmed follow- ing the twenty minute set change from Outkast, the crowd became vocal while a w a i t i n g Lauryn Hill's ments and speakers, the stage included a set of lockers, correlat- ing to the high-school interludes from "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill." The all black and predomi- nately male band was composed of two keyboardists, three guitarists, two percussionists, a saxophonist, trumpeter, trombonist and three female background singers. Lauryn Hill, in a denim outfit with a magenta shirt and matching head wrap, presented herself shortly after the band's appearance . The open- ing song was a remix of Ex-Factor, which led into the original version with a freestyle segment added to the end. After a performance of "Superstar," Lauryn performed three Fugees songs. The first was "Fugee-la," followed by, "If I Ruled the World," and "Ready Or Not." With the crowd engaged, she returned to "Miseducation." After a couple of songs she took an inter- lude with a reggae segment, then left the stage. The disc jockey, DJ Leon, kept the crowd entertained by mixing recent hip-hop songs, while displaying his ability of scratching with his head covered by his shirt. Switching to the drummer, the dreadlock-wearing percussionist showed off his incredible talent on his drum set, then moved on to two bucket pails, which amazed the crowd. After the drummer settled, the band introduced "The Sweetest Thing." Lauryn re-entered in blue jeans, a brown head wrap and a blue and brown bomber jacket with "HILL" embroidered on the back. The crowd did not respond well to "When It Hurts So Bad," but Hill quickly regained the its favor during a competition between the band and the DJ. Dualing with songs by the Jackson 5, Notorious B.I.G., Busta Rhymes, Outkast and Jay-Z, the crowd became loud and actively involved. After the competition, Lauryn introduced the song, "Zion," by dis- cussing the inspiration of the song, her children. After another reggae interlude, the crowd became extremely hyped when she started singing the first single released from "Miseducation," "Doo Wop (That Thing)." Hill really played to the crowd during the song and final- ly took off her head wrap during the verse, " ... hair weaves like Europeans ...," displaying her nat- ural collection of long, thick dread- locks. She said goodnight to the crowd after the song and the band left the stage. After five minutes of chanting from the crowd, she and the band re-entered for an encore of "Killing Me Softly." While Outkast's performance was entertaining but not mind boggling, Lauryn Hill presented the audience with everything it could have expected, and more for the first per- formance of her new national tour. Courtesy of the University Museum of Art Bill Jacobson's haunting "Portrait # 373" Is on display at the Museum of Art in Its current exhibition of the artist's thoughts, portraits and songs. spective, the photographer closes in on specific areas of the figure. Head shots are tighter, hands and torsos fill the entire frame; even the focus is crisper. Included in this section are water images, unusual not only because of Jacobson's characteristic blurred treatment of his subject matter, but also for their lack of horizon or intruding objects. Whereas water tradi- tionally appears as a backdrop for the subject of inter- est, Jacobson's lake images emphasize the water itself as a subject, linking nature to the series' reflective fig ures. As a photographer, Jacobson's treatment of the figure is innovative and unique. In a broader artistic sense, the medium is an appropriate choice for his themes. The world of photographic art often presents crisp and real- istic images, so when Jacobson blurs the lines of recog- nizably real subjects, the viewer may struggle to grasp the meaning. In this way, the photographs function to mimic the process of straining to retain the memories of lost moments. appearance. Shortly after the audi- torium went dark, Bob Marley's "The Redemption Song," began to play. After a short pause, the audi- ence became quiet as they looked at a set that resembled blue and purple stain-glassed windows of a church while hearing Lauryn Hill's voice singing the gospel song, "His Eye Is On the Sparrow." After the beautiful rendition of the well-known gospel song that introduced Lauryn Hill in the movie "Sister Act," the band entered the stage. Aside from music instru- Thnroso' gives raw emotion, energyv ByL. a gs By Leah Zaigwr Daily Arts Writer Suspended in the air, the Meryl Tankard Dancers soared through Ann Arbor this weekend. "Furioso," a unique piece, ran 65 minutes, each of which consumed the beholder through sound, sight and suspense. A cornucopia of Meryl Tankard rich autumn colors Australian flowed over the Dance's 'Furioso' muscular bodies of Power Center the five women. Feb. 19, 1999 Beginning gradu- ally with the lights still raised, the women, one-by- one, appeared on stage, slowly, and inde s nltly moving, luring the spectator in, until the lights finally went down. The female dancers were then joined by five male dancers and, eventually, the accompaniment of percussion-based music. The first part of the show was quite a dramatic representation, the women standing still as the men emerged, one at a time, engaging each in a battle to keep his female partner. The scene was intriguing and far more expressive than the others because it seemed to tell a story. But what the story explained remained unclear until the question/answer session with Meryl Tankard and her dancers fol- lowing the performance. Tankard explained that "Furioso" was based on an idea of what one does when they seem to be losing the one they love. She asked the dancers an abundance of questions, originally with the plan to do a modem version of "Sleeping Beauty" But she felt their answers to the questions were the most genuine, passion- ate and compelling. With this in mind, she set out to create the piece and completed it - extremely successfully Later in the performance came the part for which the audience had been waiting. Who says you need to have your feet on the ground to dance? Not anymore. Four of the female dancers were suspended in the air by a rope and harness hidden by their vibrant apparel. Paired with four shirtless men, they moved with vast ener- gy and vigor. With long hair and skirts flowing in the air, the overall presentation was exciting and beautiful, leaving the observer fulfilled and energized. But the roles reversed and the male dancers took to the ropes. The power and physicality of themotions continued until the women sank slowly to the ground and the men took over the scene, who followed in a series of leaps and bounds, propelling themselves up into the air and then onto the ground in a graceful landing. Together, they rushed forward with firm bodies turning themselves upside-down, twirling through the air as if letting all of their frustration and aggression fall out of them. With the stage dimly lit, they performed in shadows. With a simple set, gray and stone-like, the enchanting music, th0 ideal costumes and overwhelming energy, Meryl Tankard's "Furioso" left viewers invigorated in every sense. At the end of the piece, the women, reattached to the ropes, climbed up the stone-like wall. When asked what this symbolized, Tankard explained that it's about birth ad renewal. Even in the worst scene of destruction, there is always something sprouting, blossoming; something comes out of everything. Are you an opinionated person? 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